There are some in my own family (older generation) who married first cousins. There have also been times in the past, such as communities of conversos (hidden Jews) where cousins married to stay Jewish. What’s wrong with it?

It is not assur, and it is only contraindicated medically if there is a negative family history in the genes that could get passed on. I personally do not recommend it, but don’t chassidic “royals” do this often?

Tums- nobody based oe started the marriage with those thoughts. It’s just my own thoughts I shared with you! Anyway, If you marry someone THAT close, you gotta think all around it. Of course we only try to stay with positive thoughts (and Tefillos!)

Not only chassideshe “royals” but all royals inter-bred (look at english royal history specifically)

Uncles marrying nieces, as strange as it may seem is/was actually encouraged by the mishna and halacha (bas gilo)

Medically speaking, as was pointed out, if nothing shows up to be a problem then why not? True you may be narrowing the gene pool so it wouldn’t be recommended for everyone to be running around rampant marrying their first cousins but I don’t see it as an issue

On the other hand if it is a cousin one knows so yeah it may seem awkward (someone tried setting me up with a second cousin of mine and well let us just say that I am happy she never heard about it (when I was in high school I used to be by their house almost all the time)

Yeeah .. I don’t know about that. Nothing against her or anything, I just don’t know if it would be a good match (I am a working boy (which I don’t know if that would be an issue or not and I would feel uncomfortable bringing up even as a theoretical case what she/her parents think of working boys) and there is too much I don’t know-gee I seem to be getting set up by people who set up by personality and not enough info-yeah its happened before) and if she knew that the shidduch was suggested, well it would make things on the awkward side whenever we saw each other (baruch Hashem there have been many happy occasions at which we bump into each other)

Unless you have suggestion(s) as to other ways of going about things? Not that I would bedavka want to look into it as a shidduch, I just would have no issue if you had a (better) idea of how to do things

Bobover rebbe’s son married his first cousin. You have to understand that by the chassidim there is no chit chat boys and girls even cousins. So it’s not so wierd. They dont know eachother. It’s not like cousins get together for chanukah parties and have male and female shmoozes. ALL simchas and get togethers have mechitzas.

I don’t think this was so unheard of in sepharadi countries…it was halachically acceptable, and they were never told anything was wrong with it. They also didn’t know anything about the genetic dangers of inbreeding.

Now with Dor Yeshorim it is safer and I think it is really because of American culture that it seems unusual. Still, more than once every couple of generations is looking for problems that won’t necessarily show up on DY.

Lehavdil, Saddam Hussein YMS was born to a very inbred family, and he married a cousin. His sons YMS made him look like a tzaddik.

We forget that just as inbreeding can produce “damaged” children, it can likewise produce outstandingly brilliant, artisitic, talented children. the question is which genes are being selectively bred. If you have, i.e., two children from a family who each carry recessive genes for hemophilia, the chances are very strong that they will produce children WITH hemophelia (50% chance each pregnancy, 25% chance of the child being a carrier, and 25% chance of no defective gene being found). Genetic counseling would be strongly in order here.

THIRD cousins are considered quite distant in the gene pool. I once very much wanted to someday marry my mother’s first cousin’s son (making him my second cousin). I was too young then to even be considering marriage, and he was aabout four years older than I and definitely ready to be seriously looking for a shidduch.

He got married three years later (he lived in E”Y and we faithfully corresponded during that time, but he really was ready to be married, and I was not). He DID consider the possibiity, but his mother O”H, whom I loved dearly and who loved me, felt it would not be wise, because there were children in the family who were not well, and who were the result of a marriage betwen distant cousins. So we went our separate ways, he married a wonderful woman, I and married a wonderful man, and I fondly remember those years.